New Century Edition Blog

Swedenborg had to struggle in order to find the best way to convey his discoveries about the Bible and the spiritual world; his rough drafts, with their crossed-out lines and blotted paragraphs, prove that Swedenborg wrestled to put his thoughts into language, as indeed any good writer must. The same is true of translators of Swedenborg’s works. They are, after all, writers, and they have the same God-given freedom Swedenborg had to turn from or to follow the work at hand. But they also must remain true to the same charge given to Swedenborg by the Lord: to make the inner sense of the Word known to others.

As a prelude to the forthcoming release of the New Century Edition Secrets of Heaven volume 1, the Swedenborg Foun­dation has printed the first chap­ter of the volume as a stand-alone piece.

On May 10, reader Karl Boericke sent the following message through the “Contact the Foundation” page on the Swedenborg Foundation Web site regarding the Swedenborg Foundation’s new series of translations of the works of Emanuel Swedenborg and how they compare with the older translations produced by the Foundation.

Meaning and sound are just two of the features that a translator has to consider. Which features to focus on and which features to sacrifice—the translator is constantly faced with those decisions.

Swedenborg published the first volume of what is certainly his richest trove of spiritual treasures, Arcana Coelestia, or Secrets of Heaven, in September 1749. Around the beginning of November, a letter was sent to him, apparently from his London printer, advising him that the sales had been very poor.

To comprehend “the spiritual sense of Scripture,” then, Swedenborg had to plumb a depth of meaning that showed cultural and religious differences were irrelevant to a life in heaven. His major work unfolding the meaning of Scripture, Secrets of Heaven, therefore showed the universality of the Hebrew Scriptures.

On an unseasonably pleasant Friday evening in January, the Swedenborg Foundation hosted a talk by Dr. Jonathan S. Rose. In his talk, Dr. Rose expressed what he saw as the vision contained in the work True Christianity, the first volume of which he recently translated for the New Century Edition. The following article is based on that talk.

Although all eighteen of Swedenborg’s theological titles are consistent with each other in many ways, each has its own personality. True Christianity is intended primarily to present a structured and carefully argued alternative to mainstream Christianity. While this essentially critical topic and the disputatious approach it requires might have rendered the work a bitter and ponderous read, Swedenborg leavens the message throughout with similes and a dash of humor.

Last winter’s issue of Logos featured a story about the New Century Edition’s forthcoming companion volume of essays, Scribe of Heaven: Swedenborg’s Life, Work, and Impact. Olle Hjern, the Stockholm pastor of the Lord’s New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma, contributed an essay for the volume, titled “The Influence of Emanuel Swedenborg in Scandinavia.” Here are three paragraphs from that essay, highlighting aspects of Swedenborg’s impact on philanthropic pursuits in Sweden. Of particular interest is Hjern’s discussion of the impetus Swedenborg’s teachings gave to Swedish ecumenicism—the promotion of religious unity.

The New Century Edition (NCE) is focused on an extraordinary event that occurred in the past: the writing and publication of the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg. And the NCE, too, has its “current photo” linking the present world with the moment in time when Swedenborg wrote. That “photo” is the additional volume of newly written essays that accompanies the series.